How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.

Using graphs and charts is great for making data a lot simpler to grasp.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with numbers, percentages or comparisons more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize the information.

Graphs and charts help you explain complex information so your audience can more easily interpret it!

If you need to display dynamic visual content on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add colorful and updatable charts to your WP pages that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Lets you upload data from your hard drive or an online source of data
• Is fully responsive for mobile devices

If you plan to display visual data like bar charts, comparison graphs or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), an easier way to present your data is to create your graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into jpg and png images and then simply insert the files and an image into your posts.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add interactive bars and graphs to WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free WordPress plugin that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and mobile-responsive charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (we will explain how to do this further below), or access and download WP Visualizer the WP free plugin directory using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

The WordPress Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed attractive and mobile-responsive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few simple steps.

WordPress Visualizer uses Google Visualization API to render charts, which support cross-browser compatibility (adopting VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iOS and new Android releases, and are based on pure HTML5/SVG technology (adopting VML for old IE versions), so no extra addons are required.

Visualizer also comes with a variety of charts optimized for all your data visualization needs, including:

• Line chart
• Area chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Pie chart
• Geo chart
• Gauge chart
• Candlestick chart
• Scatter chart

Visualizer is a flexible and customizable plugin, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you customize their look.

Additionally, charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG technology to provide cross-browser compatibility (including VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Your visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without requiring the installation of any additional software.

Plugin Installation

From your WordPress administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main sidebar menu …

In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …

Locate the item in the search results section and click Install Now …

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after successfully installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library from your admin menu …

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings …

When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.

The next step is to add add charts and graphs to your library.

Visualizer Configuration

To add a new graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on the ‘Add New’ button …

An image gallery displaying all of the kinds of graphs and charts available will come up on your screen.

Select the type of graph or chart you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …

Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains all the data you want to populate your chart or graph with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

• Your first row contains your column headings.
• The second row contains the series type (e.g. number, datetime, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as required …

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, just use the sample that comes with the plugin.

Once you have completed this step, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload a CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin will now import your data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type you have previously selected …

Upload CSV File From The Web

To learn how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing the data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve picked, the plugin will display a range of customization options and settings …

The WordPress Visualizer plugin gives you complete control of your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:

• General Settings – Configure chart title settings, font styles, tooltip, and legend.
• Pie Settings – Create 3D pie charts, draw slices counterclockwise, set the text content displayed on the slice, create a “donut” pie chart, rotate the chart’s “start” angle and set the slice border color.
• Residue Settings – Set the ‘Visibility Threshold’ (the slice relative part, below which a slice will not show individually.), ‘Residual Slice Label’ (the label for the combination slice that holds all slices below slice visibility threshold, e.g. “Other”), and ‘Residue Slice Color’.
• Slice Settings – Customize the ‘Slice Offset’ (how far to separate a slice from the rest of the pie), and ‘Slice Color’.
• Layout & Chart Area – Configure the layout (total size of chart) including the width and height of the chart as a number of percentage, background color for the main area of the chart and the chart border width and color, and the placement and size of the chart area (where the chart itself is drawn, excluding axis and legends).

Once you are satisfied with the way your chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

The graph or chart will be added to your ‘Visualizer Library’ section …

Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this lets you embed charts and graphs into your posts and pages quickly and easily …

Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …

After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or delete it …

Plugin Usage

Once you’ve created a new element and added it to the Visualizer Library, adding it to a post is quite simple.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the element you want to add to your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This inserts a shortcode for the element into your content …

Once you have finished adding the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …

Once your page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see it …

Your page or post displays your item in the location where you have inserted the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive visual elements for mobile viewers …

As you can see, Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes adding interactive graph data in WordPress really efficient.

The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use Visualizer.

For tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the website below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert beautiful and mobile-responsive bar charts and graphs into WordPress.

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